The LAST Week

It's here, the last week of Insanity and I'm happy to see it. Not that I haven't enjoyed, perhaps a strong word, it, but rather 56 days or 8 weeks of 6 times a week is a lot of work. Not too much, but with work and other things going on it can be a challenge to remain consistent and committed to it. But, with 4 sessions to go plus the last Fit Test, the end is in sight!

It sucks the last session and Fit Test will be in a Hotel, but I've before so not a huge deal just a minor inconvenience. I'm quite interested to see the results of the Fit Test since I haven't done one since the 2nd one. I find it hard to tell through the weeks the gains I'm making because every session is tough, as it should be. I still hate Floor Switch Kicks! Level 3 and Full-body workout are off the Christmas card list. I have enjoyed being this active this often combined with the other things I do, minus runs, which I'll pick up again next week.

Week 7: 12 sessions to go...

I've graduated from Days to Weeks, largely because I haven't been posting daily anymore. There are only so many times you can write that the session has kicked your butt! However, my main travel is done, although there is a possibility of a Texas swing coming up shortly, so workouts will be easier. I did lose 2 workouts while I was away last week. Mainly because 11 hours in the car didn't make for me to want to exercise. Space was limited in my room but I did mange to get one session in on Wednesday, but prefer my basement for doing Insanity.

I missed one main workout and the recovery workout. I got my Friday workout in and Saturday was to be the Core Cardio and Balance or substitute with the Max Interval Sports. Initially, I was going to do Core Cardio and was all set to go, but decided to toss in MIS. Core Cardio was 37 minutes long and MIS 53 or so and I did feel like getting a good hard session in. I figured even if it was too tough I could at least make it through 37 minutes, so away I went with MIS.

MIS is different in a few ways:

1. No Warm-up like we are use to, although we always progress through the sets wisely with a slower set before progressing.
2. No Stretching in the beginning. I don't think it had a negative impact, but more on that later. 
3. Rather than the 3 sets of about 4 exercises (typically the last set has a superset added for fun) it was a sequence of sport styled cycles: Boxing, Football, Basketball, Gymnastics, and Track.

I liked the uniqueness of this session. Like all of them there is lots of fatigue and failure late in sets, but new movements and the variety was welcomed. I did feel extra stiffness/soreness yesterday and today mainly in my quads (soreness) and back (stiffness), which I attribute to Saturday's session. I did supervise my 7 y/o to be nephew's swimming party on Sat. but that was mainly treading water and walking through water. And played football Sun., but that doesn't typically bring out this soreness.

Day ??: A Change

For me, this is Day 31, I think, and if I was following the schedule this would've been my 3rd day of Cardio and Balance in the recovery week between Month 1 and Max Month 2. However, I decided to forgo this Recovery week and jump right into Month 2. I had a couple of what I think are good reasons for it neither of which are macho related.

Reason 1: I felt like I was recovering quickly from the workouts and after that first week when I had lingering muscle soreness, I was always ready for the next days workout. Further, I have been coupling all the workouts with my normal activities: Monday-Soccer; Tuesday-Curling; Wednesday-Basketball; Friday-Soccer; Sunday-Football. As well, 40-60 minute walk for the dogs each day or most.

Reason 2: And really the primary reason was I didn't want to lose momentum. Next week I will be travelling most of the week for work and will be sharing a hotel room so getting my workouts in will be much more of a challenge. I figured if I'd already been through the hard stuff once I'd be more motivated to find a way to get it done while on the road.

So, I've done Max Interval, Plyo, and Cardio Conditioning and they are all hard (er). The Floor Switch kicks in Interval are near impossible for me, at least to get the bounce rhythm they do, I'm hopeful by the end I'll be able to do a few like them. These sessions seem to put movements together, which is hard and more fun, I think. Certainly have experienced some muscle soreness again, which is telling me I'm getting at some muscles or depth of exercise I wasn't in the first month.

I found Cardio Conditioning was hard but had a "fair" flow to it. Just when you were nearing exhaustion, Shaun T would throw it a couple of exercises that gave you some cardio recovery but work some deep muscle or muscles deeply.

All in all hard but good! I'll do the 3rd Fit test Sunday.

Day 24: First Insanity on the road

The good news is I did the Plyometric session on the road. The space was quite tight and a little treacherous when my sweating was added to hardwood floor. So, my feet slide a lot in push-up type exercises but all in all a successful workout. I was also concerned with making a lot of noise as I stayed in a B&B, but apparently I wasn't overly noising or breaking plaster!

Tomorrow will be another on the road, but in two weeks it will be tougher task to get them done, but am hopeful I will get them all in.